Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, got a clean chit from the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) here on May 27 in the alleged drug bust case for lack of “sufficient” evidence.
The NCB has given a clean chit to five others, Avin Sahu, Gopalji Anand, Sameer Saighan, Bhaskar Arora and Manav Singhal, even as the NCB filed a charge sheet against 14 accused. Apart of Arbaaz and Munmun, Vikrant Chhokar, Mohar Jaiswal, Ismeet Singh Chadha, Gomit Chopra, Nupur Satija, Abdul Kader Sheikh, Shreyas Nair, Manish Rajgadia, Achit Kumar, Chinadu Igwe, Shivraj Harijan and Okoro Uzeyama have been named in the 6000 page-long charge sheet filed by the NCB.
Referring to courts holding the view that messages exchanged on social media had no evidentiary value, NCB chief S.N. Pradhan said, “There should be physical corroboration of WhatsApp chat. Courts have clarified that WhatsApp chat, in itself, holds no value. You can talk about anything on WhatsApp but if not corroborated with physical evidence, it’s not complete evidence.”
The Supreme Court in a different case last year had observed that messages exchanged on social media platforms, such as WhatsApp, had no evidentiary value. While granting bail to Achit Kumar, one of the accused in the high-profile drug bust case, a Mumbai special court in November last year had made similar observations. Aryan was granted bail, along with co-accused Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha, after spending almost a month behind bars, by the Bombay High Court a month before
Kumar.
Addressing media persons here, Pradhan further observed, “The principle of preponderance and probability is not applicable to NDPS Act. There should be beyond a reasonable doubt that we did not find such evidence.”
An NCB team headed by NCB official Sameer Wankhede had busted an alleged drugs party on the Cordelia Cruise on October 2 night last year. The cruise ship was on its way to Goa when the NCB raided the ship at mid-sea arresting 19 passengers on board. However, controversies with regard to Wankhede’s handling the case erupted, questioning the credibility of the NCB, after which the case was handed over to a Special Investigation Team (SIT).
The investigation is not over yet, said Pradhan. If the evidence is found, a supplementary charge sheet will be filed. The NCB chief also admitted to the lapses that agency’s first team under Wankhede had committed. If found guilty, action will be taken against them, he added.
Expressing happiness over Aryan getting a clean chit, his lawyer Satish Manshinde said, “The arrest and detention of Aryan Khan for 26 days was unjustified more particularly when he was not found in possession of any drugs. There was no evidence of any kind. There was no material of any nature of violation of any law much less the NDPS Act.”
With the NCB dropping charges against Aryan and five other accused, the curtain on the highly controversial drug bust case has finally drawn. In the meanwhile, the Central government has ordered appropriate action against former NCB official Wankhede for his shoddy probe in the case.